Pair of Side Chairs

The finely carved unusual splat with two horse heads in the centre holding draperies in their mouth above a classcial pierced splat decorated with further draperies and supported by horse feet. There are several chair designs by Carl Gotthard Langhans and also by Johann Ephraim Eben featuring very similar rich draperies. Like many designs of Berlin chairmakers from that period they resemble earlier English models for example by Hepplewhite. These splats though, seem to be an independent design made by a renowned workshop in Berlin or Potsdam for the Royal household.

Provenance:

These side or dining chairs formed a set with an armchair featuring the identical back plate, that belonged to the Schlossmuseum Berlin in the 1920s (see historical photograph). The inventory of the Schlossmuseum at the time came solely from the Royal Palaces in Berlin and Potsdam. Unfortunately no more information about the primary Provenance of these chairs has survived, but it can be assumed that they belonged to the Royal Prussian inventory.